Team-By-Team: Turkish Grand Prix, Istanbul
No points for a second consecutive weekend
at Force India, and neither driver never really
looked like being in contention either. Sutil
started 12th and was consistently running
ahead of team-mate di Resta but couldn’t get
his three-stop strategy to catapult him into
the points. He took the chequered flag in 13th
place 20 seconds outside the points, but 1 lap
down on the leader. Di Resta had to retire on
lap 45 due to a suspected loose wheel nut.
He was told by the team to stop the car after
seeing something on the data just after his
final pitstop.
A three-stop strategy worked well for Sebastien
Buemi on Sunday as he scored more points for
Toro Rosso. The Swiss started a lowly 16th, and
had risen to 13th by lap 3.
He looked set for a finish well inside the
top ten after emerging from his final pitstop
in seventh, but Renault’s Nick Heidfeld soon
got by, and he lost out to Vitaly Petrov on the
final lap to demote him to ninth. Team-mate
Alguersuari struggled with tyre degradation
in the other STR6 and even had to pit for an
unscheduled fourth time three laps from the
finish, dropping him to 16th.
Kamui Kobayashi put on one of the drives of
the day to leap from the last place on the grid
to tenth at the chequered flag, making it his
third points finish of the year so far.
It could have been so much better had he
not puncture a tyre while overtaking Buemi on
lap 23, costing him ten seconds and a possible
seventh place.
Team-mate Perez is still searching for those
elusive first points after finishing 14th. He
made contact with Maldonado on the first lap,
requiring an unscheduled stop for a new front
wing, putting him to the back of the field.
Wheel nut problems stopped Liuzzi showing
HRT’s true potential in Istanbul on Sunday, as
he had to make a number of precautionary
pitstops to ensure the car was safe to race.
As a result he finished five laps down in 22nd
and last place, with team-mate Karthikeyan in
21st place, almost a full minute behind Virgin’s
d’Ambrosio.
A major update is planned for the car in
Barcelona which the team hopes will catapult
them ahead of Virgin.
A gearbox problem on Timo Glock’s MVR-
02 before the start of the race left Belgium’s
Jerome d’Ambrosio carrying the hopes of the
British team on his shoulders, with the young
rookie rising to the challenge admirably to
comfortably beat both HRTs to the flag.
Glock lost fifth gear on the lap to the grid
and, despite the best efforts of his crew, he
wasn’t able to join the race. D’Ambrosio started
from 23rd after copping a five-place penalty in
practice but had cleared both HRTs by lap 9. He
was the only driver to stop just twice and kept
a competitive pace until the finish.
Having finished ahead of a Williams car in
China, Lotus fell back behind the midfield
runners in Turkey and had to be content
with beating the Virgins and HRTs in a rather
disappointing result.
Trulli was the lead driver on this occasion
after team-mate Kovalainen was hit down by
hydraulics issues, but the Italian still finished
over 30 seconds behind Maldonado for 18th.
Despite his problems, Kovalainen was over 45
seconds clear of Virgin’s d’Ambrosio. They are
hoping more upgrades in Barcelona will push
them further into the midfield bunch.
F1 TURKEY
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